‘Nas: Time Is Illmatic’ Tells The Story Of One Of The Greatest Hip Hop Albums Of All Time

In 1994, an up and coming rapper from the Queensbridge Housing Projects in New York City released one of the greatest hip hop albums of all-time. That it was his debut release, after only having dropped a couple guest verses previously, made the achievement all the more impressive. The artist was Nas and the album was Illmatic. The 2014 documentary Nas: Time Is Illmatic, which is available for streaming now on Amazon Prime, marked the 20th anniversary of the landmark album’s release.

Hip hop has never really been an album-friendly medium. In the days of vinyl, the 12” single was it’s perfect vehicle. Hip-hop is about big hits that burst out of your speakers or get your head nodding on the dance floor. It’s symbiotic relationship with re-mixes, either as singles or live on any of the legendary NY area hip hop radio shows, and mix-tapes only amplify this divide. That’s not to say there aren’t any great hip hop albums —there are many, in fact— but as a genre it’s not tied to the culture and confines of a full length release. Illmatic is a great album in every sense. Every song is memorable and acts as a chapter in the story the album tells about life in the projects, good and bad. As Nas says himself early in the film, ““I was trying to make the perfect album.”

Nasir Jones was born in 1973 to the jazz musician Olu Dara and his wife Fannie, a postal worker. As a boy, his family moved into the sprawling Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing projects in North America. Despite their modest means, the Jones house was rich in culture, music and books. From his father he inherited a love of music and a library full of Afrocentric history tomes which helped shape his worldview. Interviews with Nas and his brother Jabari paint a fairly quaint picture of project life, filled with music, friends and family. That is, until crack cocaine hit the streets and ravaged black working class communities with its easy money and all-consuming addiction. The divorce of their parents hit both brothers hard and troubles at school led to the rapper dropping out after junior high.

While his friends got caught up in the drug trade, Nas had his mind on his music and, fortunately, he was in the right place to start a rap career. Starting in the mid-‘80s, “The Bridge,” as locals call the Queensbridge Houses, produced a steady stream of rap talent including revered producer Marley Marl and his Juice Crew. Nas’ guest verse on the Main Source track “Live at the Barbeque” with the memorable line “When I was 12 I went to Hell for snuffing Jesus” got the attention of people in the industry and he was soon signed to the storied Columbia record label, home of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Work began on Nas’ debut full-length with the cream of the crop of ’90s New York hip hop producers. Time Is Illmatic breaks down every song on the album, from its inspirations to its creation. It even includes subtitles so you can catch every multi-syllabic attack as Nas paints a vivid picture of what it was to be a young, African-American man living in the housing projects in the early ’90s. What makes the album so great and so compelling is that the portrait isn’t one dimensional; sure, there are the hardships, the crime stories, and tribute’s to fallen friends, but there’s also joy and the simple celebration of surviving another day on the city’s mean streets. As he raps on “Life’s A Bitch,” the album’s third single, “I woke up early on my born day; I’m 20, it’s a blessing / The essence of adolescence leaves my body, now I’m fresh / And, my physical frame is celebrated cause I made it.”

For a topic so limited in scope – it’s not even just a documentary about Nas, but about one specific album of his – Nas: Time Is Illmatic deftly weaves together live and interview footage to create a compelling film that will appeal to both hardcore and casual fans of the artist, as well as hip hop music in general. At about an hour and 15 minutes it feels denser than your usual “Classic Albums” type-show, but not so much than you feel bludgeoned with data. And that’s also because it isn’t just about an album, yet like the record itself, is about Nas and his family and friends, growing up in the Queensbridge projects he helped put on the map.